Quotes in category: “Life”:

What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, as well as the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them were perfect, and we couldn't expect them to be. You couldn't make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build a world from it.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable.

The higher you raise your hopes, the further you have to fall

It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

Be Brave. 
Take Risks. 
Nothing can substitue experience. 

Sure, it sucked to be lost, but I'd long ago realized I preferred it to depending on anyone else to get me where I needed to go. That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened-- good, bad, or anywhere in between-it was always, if nothing else, all your own.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. 

Kerry: Why did you say you loved me? 
Kyle: Well..when your dad died.. 
Kerry: I get it. You felt sorry for me. 
Kyle: No, wait, when your dad died, it made me realize that we have to say the things we feel or we might not get another chance again. 

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.

The further you go, the more you have to be proud of. At the same time, in order to come a long way, you have to be behind to begin with. In the end, though, maybe it's not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all. 

I close my eyes, sick of the riddles, and to my surprise all I could see were dandelions - as if they had been painted on the fields of my imagination, a hundred thousand suns. And I remembered something else that makes us human: faith, the only weapon in our arsenal to battle doubt.

The real world, whether we like it or not, is right here, right now. All of this, every day, is important. Everybody matters. Everything we do has an effect on other, directly or indirectly, whether we realize it or not.

But wasn't that always the way. It's never something huge that changes everything, but instead the tiniest of details, irrevocably tweaking the balance of the universe while you're busy focusing on the big picture. 

The lower your self-esteem is, the more likely you are to believe that someone else holds the key to your happiness.

I may not have an unbrella to block the rain... but it doesnt mean I'm not ready to weather the storm.

College is a bubble. You Enter it for four years and forget there is a real world outside of your paper deadlines and midterm exams and beerpong championships. You don't read the newspaper - you read textbooks. You don't watch the news - you watch Letterment. But even so, bits and snatches of the universe manage to leak in.

Memories are worth all the sleepless nights it takes to make them.

We all leave childhood with wounds. In time we may transform our liabilities into gifts. The faults that pockmark the psyche may become the source of a man's or woman's beauty. Injuries we have suffered invite us to assume the most human of all vocations - to heal ourselves and others. 

The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.

We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

Once you've been through hell, You'll never forget what the flames felt like.

It's better to die on your feet, than to live on your knees.

For the rest of my life, whenever the sky's grey, I'll remember that the blue's still there above the clouds, and the sun's still shining.

That's the worst of growing up, and I'm beginning to realize it. The things you wanted so much when you were a child don't seem half so wonderful to you when you get them.

My heart keeps telling my hold my breath, You'll never learn a thing if you bail out now.